TGS 2007: Soul Calibur IV Trailer and Gameplay Impressions

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A new face joins the tale of swords and souls.

By Jeff Haynes

The Soul Calibur franchise has provided a ton of fast paced action with its memorable characters, numerous plotlines and balanced weapon systems. At Namco's Pre-TGS press event, the latest Soul Calibur IV trailer taken direct from the game's engine was shown, which showcased new information on the upcoming title. Starting off at a giant tower, a number of familiar faces were shown, including Mitsurugi, Ivy and Taki. However, we also saw a brand new female character, covered head to toe in body armor, who admonished the characters by saying that it was their fault that calamity was being caused in the world.

This new character, Hilda, was a striking departure from the standard Soul Calibur female warriors because of the lack of skin showing in her character model. In fact, with the exception of her mouth and chin, she shows no skin whatsoever, which is a stark contrast to Ivy's busty and scanty outfits. Hilda also stands out from other characters because she wields a short sword and spear at the same time, making her adept at both long range strikes and short range combos. Of course, Cervantes has been another fighter that has dual wielded weapons before, but Hilda constantly balances her moves between distance and close quarter attacks. In fact, we noticed a number of preliminary strikes that she used to then set up quick slashes from her sword.

We found out that each weapon for Hilda is assigned to different buttons on the controller, and can be combined for different vertical and horizontal strikes, giving players a certain amount of flexibility as to how they play the character. It was still early, and many of her moves hadn't been completely included, but she seemed to be able to hold her own against many of the classic characters, who demonstrated many of their familiar attacks. Similarly, we were told that the lighting was still rather temporary and should be much more dynamic, but it still cast impressive shadows with the environmental objects and fighters. Since many of the environments will feature breakable objects like gigantic vases, it'll be interesting to see what the final elements will look like. This is especially true since many other stage details, such as rushing water in some stages, appeared to be complete.

While we were told that Hilda was the only character that the team was willing to announce at this time, there would be a number of other newcomers to the franchise, extending the battle significantly. When we asked about the possibility of exclusive characters for either the PS3 or 360, as the Soul Calibur team had done with Soul Calibur II, we were told that the team hadn't decided on doing such a move again, but that it was an interesting idea that they'd been considering. Finally, the trailer quickly came to an end after Nightmare appeared to project a massive fireball towards the screen. As the generally expected release date of sometime in 2008 came on screen, Nightmare could be overheard to growl, "The nightmare will not end."

Whether that's alluding to plans for a future title or a simple comment for his storyline wasn't clear, but it was rather apparent that with the inclusion of Hilda and other new characters, the completion of the tale of souls and swords should be rather deep. Combined with new game modes that the team wasn't willing to go into, 2008's release should provide another strong entry for the franchise. We'll have more on Soul Calibur IV as it's released.